Saturday, September 1, 2012

Turquoise Loom Knit Scarf

I posted this on Altered Scrapbooking, and realized I didn't want to go into stitch detail so I wouldn't bore the paper crafters. That was when I decided it was time to start a loom knitting blog! Especially since my looms have been busy all
summer.

Last weekend I enjoyed the sunshine out on our newly enlarged cabin
deck, with my Knifty Knitter loom and some beautiful artsy yarn from the
yarn shop in Canmore (Knit and Caboodle). You can see our little Cooper watching for squirrels in the photo.

At a meeting I attended in June, a lady was wearing this sideways knit
scarf/cowl/poncho. I loved it and she explained her technique to me. I really liked that it came to a point in the front, without also coming to a point in the back and could be pulled down over the shoulders but the arms would be free. Much easier to wear under a coat without the bulk hanging down your back, but in a meeting - or anywhere - where your neck/shoulders get chilled ... easy to pull down for warmth.

Last month I ordered a fabulous custom made piece from Stephanie at 'Rock, Paper, Scissors, Etc' at Etsy. I have long admired her knit pieces, and when it came - I was surprised to see that it was also a sideways knit item.

Since I've been loom knitting for over a year and have some experience, I decided to attempt one myself - with no pattern. I was SO pleased
with how well it turned out, I tried a second piece with this beautiful turquoise yarn. (
I'll share the first one another day). This one is more scarf/cowl and
less poncho, and in a completely different stitch than my first.

The yarn has a metallic fleck in it, which you can sort of see in the photo below.

Here it is more spread out over the shoulders, and you can get a better look at the stitch pattern.

In the 'Knitting With The Knifty Knitter II' pamphlet (by Provo Craft) there is a pattern for a shawl*. It basically uses the yellow Knifty Knitter Loom (the largest in the package), and you e-wrap 2 pegs, skip one, then e-wrap 2 pegs. I've always liked the look of it - but was a little unsure of how badly the edges would roll when the piece was completely e-wrapped. It would be pretty similar to an entire shawl done on needles using the knit stitch.

I decided to give it a try. I knew I didn't want it to go too far down my shoulders, so I crochet cast on 24 pegs on the purple Knifty Knitter loom. This loom was sold separately than the package, and has more pegs in it for a smaller gauge knit. I used it because my yellow loom has a sweater in progress.

The edges don't really roll! Another time though, I would probably make each side 3 pegs wide, and add a purl stitch in the center. Or maybe alternate K P K with P K P each row on those 3 start/end pegs. At any rate, I was very happy with this stitch pattern and now want to make a lap afghan for myself for the car. With the cooler weather just around the corner, it would come in very handy.

This pattern works up REALLY quickly, since the loom was large and I was pretty much e-wrapping the whole thing. I did notice that there was quite a bit of 'shrinkage' though ... the finished rectangle was just over half the width of the final rows that were still on the loom. So you would want to add at least 30 - 40% to your cast on pegs so your final piece is as wide as you want it to be.

Once my rectangle was as long as I wanted it to be, I added the last cast-on stitch back onto the loom, then worked up the side adding stitches from the side onto the loom until each peg with a loop on it had 2 loops. Sorry I can't explain it better ... maybe one day I'll figure out a diagram, and if so I will edit this post. I had been working with 24 pegs, 18 of them had 2 loops and 6 had one loop (from bringing the bottom edge back onto the loom). I knit over the pegs that had 2 loops so all 24 pegs had one loop. Then I simply cast off. No sewing required - the pieces were joined together with those last two rows!

If you look at the photos, the center front of the scarf is actually the first cast on stitch. Instead of it hanging horizontally, the cast on edge hangs vertically and is caught at the top by the last row of the rectangle.

Amazing how a circle of plastic with some pegs and some gorgeous yarn can make such a lovely accessory.

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About Me

I have had a love affair with paper and scissors as long as I can remember. Card stock, stickers, stamps, ink, dies ... I love it all. I took up Loom Knitting in 2011 and also really enjoy knitting without needles so started a blog to share my creations with others. On a road trip in 2015, I stumbled across Zentangle and was immediately hooked. Instead of combining my Zentangle with my card posts, I have now started a blog for that as well!
I live in Alberta Canada, with my DH and 2 furry kids.
Note, I made the background for my Loom Knitting and Card blogs using papers from digital kits by Gina Cabrera at Digital Design Essentials.